Friday 27 September 2024

Friday 27 September

Hermits Rest Bus Tour

Friday was a pretty open day, so we decided to start out with the Red Line bus to Hermits Rest (and various other stops) out that way since you can't take your private car out that road. The bus stop is right next to the Bright Angel Trailhead, and an easy walk from the Masiwk Lodge where we were staying as well.

The Red (Hermits Rest) Shuttle Bus Route runs from the Bright Angel Trailhead to the Trailview overlook, Maricopa Point, Powell Point, Hopi Point (where there bathrooms), Mohave Point, the Abyss, Monument Creek Vista, Pima Point, and then finall the Hermit Trailhead at Hermits Rest (where there is a shelter/gift shop made to look stylistically like an original cabin structure. The bus runs generally every 15 minutes, though there are times of day it's only 10 minutes between buses, from 8:00 am to 30 minutes after sunset.

At Maricopa Point there is a big mine shaft opening from the Orphan Lode uranium mine, which is kind of cool. The Park Website has more more on the mine and miners here.

One interesting thing happened while we were at one of the stops, it was directly under the flight path of the helicopters that were, about have 3 minutes, lugging construction gear from a staging area at the south rim down into the canyon where the trans-canyon pipeline project was completely renovating the water main that brings water up from springs in the canyon to both rims. The pipeline had several major breaks this year, briefly shutting down all the lodging on the rims (and actually threatened our hike, though it was back up over a week in advance of our trip).

Videos

Maricopa Point

Pictures

Red Bus Route Map
Overall Bus Routes Map
A Red Bus Stop
The Red Bus Loop Diagram
Brett and John mosey to the bus terminal
Maricopa Point
lather up, it's sunny out...
Fire-Watch Tower
Part of the mining structure from the Orphan Lode Mine (Uranium)
Plateau Point Trail has been widened for construction on the transcanyon water pipeline
the Orphan Lode Mine (Uranium)
Old mining equipment
Closeup of the mine shft
Powell Point Overlook
Story of the mine
A Huey (UH-1) park helicopter working it's way the 1 mile climb out of the canyon
I think these first are from the Trailview Overlook or Maricopa Point
Elizabeth and I at the Trailview Overlook or Maricopa Point
All of us at the Overlook
John "Overlooks" the canyon
Arriving at Powell Point (I think)
Markers on the Memorial at Powell Point
Markers on the Memorial at Powell Point
A series of shots of the helicopters coming and going
"The Abyss" overlook
Tammy on the Powell Point Memorial
The Colorado River peeking through the canyon
Survey marker
Tammy looking sporty
Hermits Rest house/gift shop
Hermits Rest house/gift shop
I bought this book - it's interesting but not GREAT
Elizabeth, My Belle, at Hermits Rest
Transcanyon Pipline
Lifting construction gear into the canyon
Working on the pipeline
New pump house and water distribution system at Havasupai Gardens

Error creating thumbnail: convert: cache resources exhausted `/var/www/mediawiki/images/7/70/P1080981.JPG' @ error/cache.c/OpenPixelCache/4095. convert: no images defined `/tmp/transform_cf6e78ab1037.jpg' @ error/convert.c/ConvertImageCommand/3229. Error code: 1

Error creating thumbnail: convert: cache resources exhausted `/var/www/mediawiki/images/3/32/P1080982.JPG' @ error/cache.c/OpenPixelCache/4095. convert: no images defined `/tmp/transform_14889bc9af0c.jpg' @ error/convert.c/ConvertImageCommand/3229. Error code: 1

Error creating thumbnail: convert: cache resources exhausted `/var/www/mediawiki/images/a/a2/P1080983.JPG' @ error/cache.c/OpenPixelCache/4095. convert: no images defined `/tmp/transform_b19683df72aa.jpg' @ error/convert.c/ConvertImageCommand/3229. Error code: 1

Error creating thumbnail: convert: cache resources exhausted `/var/www/mediawiki/images/7/7f/P1080985.JPG' @ error/cache.c/OpenPixelCache/4095. convert: no images defined `/tmp/transform_b715d0dfb759.jpg' @ error/convert.c/ConvertImageCommand/3229. Error code: 1

Hike at Shoshone Point

After the bus tour we wanted to take the short hike to Shoshone Pt that "Sam" our tour guide had told us about the day before. He said it was little used (except by locals), and the best view in the place, and we figured it'd be short enough for Elizabeth hike with us.

The trail has a cute little parking area, that is ample but small. From there the trail is more of a fire road than a real trail, and it is often used for driving the supplies to weddings hosted at the point - like it was the day we were there. There's a shelter and bathroom at the point, about .7 miles from the parking area. When we arrived at the point a latin family was just finishing up taking pictures on the point, and I don't envy them because getting to the point involves climbing over some fairly rugged and steep rocks that I would not want to do in a dress for fine suit.

Once on the point, I have to agree, this was probably the best view we got the entire trip.

Videos

Pictures

The parking at the trailhead
Tammy
John
Elizabeth... The Beatles!
Starting the hike
Elizabeth getting used to Trekking Poles
The wedding crashers!
But what's the point, Basil?
JT perplexed
he's figured it out!
... nope, it's over there!
Touchdown!
Ready for Takeoff

Visitor's Center and Geology Museum

I can't recall exactly how we got onto the idea of checking out the Geology Museum, but we did. It's out by Granduer Point, on Entrance Road about 3/4 of the way from Maswik to the Park Store and Visitor's Center. I think we wanted to go to the Park Store for something, maybe snacks for the long ride on Saturday out to Antelope Canyon and back to Las Vegas.

Anyway, we did, and it was fairly unimpressive and mostly meant for kids. BUT, Grandeur Point was cool, you could see down to the river, and there was a guy there with a spotting scope (for hunting) letting folks take look. He happened to mention there was going to be a skygazing/astronomy night that night at the Visitor's Center! That was great news, as I had wanted to do that all summer, but the Park's website implied that all of those had happened for the season.

Yavapai Geology Museum
location
Gift Shop
museum inside
Museum view
Museum
Museum
We saw some elk on the way to the Visitor's Center
South rim Visitor's Center
Visitor's Center inside
View from Geology center, this is Plateau Point Trail (I think) where they were staging to work on the water main
A condor flying over the museum
Important advice from the gift shop

Dinner at "We Cook Pizza and Pasta, Tusayan, AZ

After a busy day, and being on a short carb hiatus, we had dinner at the conveniently located "We Cook Pizza" restaurant near the iMax and Buck Wild in Tusayan. Our tour guide had recommended it, and there we good reviews online. It was actually quite tasty, and I over-ordered (16" didn't sound that big...) and I think I enjoyed the bread sticks more than the pizza, but it was all good.

Cheering Hikers at Bright Angel Trailhead

We had a bit of time to kill after dinner, but waiting for the sun to set for the stargazing event... and John had some really good stories from Wednesday night when he'd walked from our lodge back down to the BA to see if folks were still coming up the trail. We were all pretty intrigued, so we walked down to check it out, and give Elizabeth a bit of exposure to the trail itself.

We ran into several groups of Rim2Rim hikers, one really big group that was missing one of theirs (she did turn up while we were there), and one older lady that came up while we were hiking down to the arch that told us about getting dehydrated while on the hike (yikes). But Elizabeth was the hit of the event because she just couldn't contain her exuberance!

Elizabeth Cheering hikers on!

Selfie
"USie"

Stargazing / Astronomy Night at the Visitor's Center with Dean Regis

It just happens that Thursday night was Jupiter's closest approach to Earth, and Dean Regas (wiki) (formerly of the Cincinnati Observatory (old website), where we had previously met him during an Open House) was in town in the park that week, and leding a stargazing evening on Friday.

He had recently 'retired' from the Observatory, and was in town to do a Rim2River (starting on the north rim, and North Kaibab Trail), stay a few nights at Phantom Ranch, and then hike up the Bright Angel to the south rim, and hosted the astronomy night beforehand.

So, after dinner at "We Cook", we headed back to the Visitor's Center and started looking around for astronomers. It was a bit confusing at first, as there was no big banner or anything saying there was going to be an event, but once the sun started to set you could easily see the red LED light strips leading you behind the center to the parking lot where they had setup.